Two Top Bananas

Wednesday January 16th, 2008 - Milwaukee, WI/Lake Villa, IL

Much better day today. MUCH. I got up at 7am and started right in working. I had a lot of loose ends to clean up and I did them all. I had to send a new batch of comedy CDs out to LA to be listed on a website called laugh.com. George Carlin owns part of it and I met the other partner when I did the San Francisco Comedy Competition way back in 2003.

These kinds of contacts pay off slowly over time. I get listed on the website and actually have sold several units which I wouldn’t have otherwise. I sent him another 15 that he has been asking for so that’s a good thing. I won’t get as much money as if I sold them myself but that’s ok. The exposure is all good. I donate a lot of my CD money to charity anyway.

I need to stop donating once these are gone and start making some money. I don’t mind donating to charity and in fact I make it a point to do it whenever I can but now I need my legs to start sprouting a little in the business world. I’m a new little lamb just getting a lay of the land and those are what the wolves like to eat the most. I need to be most careful.

Today I tied up a lot of loose ends so I can focus on the business. My car insurance was due so I paid that. In full. For once I now have collision included so if a boozed up illegal alien t-bones me in a stolen car I will be covered. I haven’t had a bad wreck in a few years so I am probably about due pretty soon. At least if it happens now I’ll be able to get a new car even if I’m a squished vegetable and can’t drive it. Like a good neighbor they’re there.

I never thought that was the right slogan. To me a good neighbor isn’t ‘there’. To me an ideal neighbor waves at me when he’s walking into his house with a bag of groceries and I never have to actually talk to him for more than ten seconds. THAT’S a good neighbor. Maybe that’s why I rent and live in a basement like a potato bug at this point in my life.

My AAA was due as well so I renewed that too. $77 is not a lot to pay for the protection of knowing I will get towed whenever my engine blows like a fat man’s heart or I lock the keys in my ignition yet again. Over the years I’ve gotten WAY more than I paid and I will surely qualify for a platinum card should they ever come out with one. I’m a AAA ‘lifer’.

My bank account got smaller but my self esteem got bigger doing one task after another that I’d been putting off. At least it’s all out of the way now and I’m working hard to be a smart person for once and not let things get to the crisis point. This is a LOT less stressful and I already can feel a better vibe. My car is all legal and paid for and that feels fantastic.

I went up to Milwaukee today to have lunch with my friend Mark Krueger. I’ve known Mark since before I worked at 93QFM in Milwaukee and then we worked together there. He is a true character and unbelievably funny and has always been a supporter of mine.

Not many people could get away with the nickname ‘Mangy Man’ but he can pull it off. He is a true original and one of my all time favorite people. His warped and twisted sense of humor even makes me flinch sometimes and that’s no easy task. He’s a total natural.

Mark plays the guitar very well and is in several bands at any one time and he’s great at all of it. He loves obscure foreign music and used to have an import show on 93QFM way back in the ‘80s and ‘90s and even though it was on Sunday nights he was by far the most popular and well known personality on the station. He’s just got a natural likeable vibe.

I hadn’t seen The Mange in a long time and he always keeps in touch with me so I felt I owed him a visit and today was the day. He sells ad space for the Shepherd Express paper and that might be a place where I can advertise Uranus Factory Outlet. He laughed when I told him the idea and I know he’ll think of some great ideas for funny products to make.

While I was in the building I saw another one of my all time favorite people Rip Tenor. Rip is legendary in Milwaukee for his hilarious character named ‘Art Kumbalek’. It’s one of the absolute funniest characters I’ve ever seen in my entire life and it never fails to get me to laugh out loud every time I see him. I am in awe of how talented and funny Rip is.

When I first started out in comedy I had heard of a comedy troupe called ‘Rip Tenor’s Cavalcade Of Top Bananas’ and that name alone made me a fan. Then I went to see the show in person and it blew me away. Rip is a true comedic talent and not just a standup. I have always been a huge fan and to have him smile and shake my hand humbles me. He’s one of the heroes I had when I started and now all these years later we’ve become peers.

When I was on the morning show at QFM I had Rip on doing his Art character weekly. When I got fired he told me I was the only local broadcast station that had him on and it made me sick to my stomach. He’s a truly brilliant comedic mind and in my opinion he’s got all the talent he needs to be headlining major venues and cranking out hilarious films.

Mark Krueger is also funny enough to have made an excellent comedian had he chose a career in comedy. He’s doing great as a sales person and he loves playing in a band but he really is a funny person no matter what he’s doing. It saddens me that guys like this are in the daily grind world and some of the unfunniest people I’ve ever met are in comedy. It’s not right in my opinion but I have enough trouble paying my own bills. I just don’t get it.

Mark’s got a great wife Amy who has been unbelievably ill for several years. It’s a long complicated story I won’t go into but she’s spent more time in the hospital in the past few years than at home. She’s had countless surgeries and never complains about it. I am very sad to see such a sweetheart of a person suffer so much but she handles it amazingly well.

What’s even more amazing is that Mark told me Amy loves to come see me perform in town because I make her laugh for some reason. Wow, what a flattering thing to hear. I’m going to be at the Northern Lights Casino coming up at the end of the month and they are hoping to come to a show if she’s feeling up to it. Talk about pressure. I hope she likes it.

I came home feeling really up after getting to see two outstanding and funny people like Mangy Man and Rip Tenor. I know they’ll support me as friends on my business venture but I also want to tap into their creative minds as well. Both of them are extremely sharp.